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Monday, 26 April 2010

Tasty Cake Experiment

Ever since I started baking, I have been making birthday cakes for my family, no more store bought ones ;) I used to get a little nervous at the thought of making a cake for a special occasion, but I am now so used to the task that I am using it as an opportunity to hone my baking and cake decorating skills.

This is one good example of my recent cake-making experiment. This 'made-to-order' birthday cake was created based on just one piece of information I gathered, "lots of fruits, no cheese please".

I was in no mood to baked a sponge layered cake so I settled for a no-bake chilled cake. Instead of digestive biscuits, the cake base is made with crushed oreo cookies, to make the oreo-cookie monsters in my house happy. I removed the cream in the oreos...and it became an instant treat for my child...he gathered the cream and rolled it between his hands to form 'candy balls'! It was really an unpleasant sight!!

I have decided on a mango mousse filling since I have been buying mangoes in 'bulk'. However, I wanted to do away with the whipping cream or heavy cream that is called for in every single recipe that I looked up in the internet. I had no luck with whatever cookbooks I have on hand too. Since I was quite determined to make the mousse filling without any heavy cream or whipped cream, I went ahead to create my own recipe.

I blended fresh mangoes, passion fruits and some non-fat yogurt, the blender I borrowed from one of my siblings came in handy :) To help the mixture set, I added some gelatin powder (melted in water). Even though I used a 7" pan, the mousse, or rather pudding-like filling was too little. The filling layer came up to only 1.5", as a result, I had a very short cake :(

Decorating the cake was easy, I simply loaded it with chunks of fresh fruits...mangoes, strawberries and blueberries. Little did I know the mousse layer was not really firm enough to take the weight of the fruits, and the cake started to 'sink'! I guess if I were to add the whipping cream, the texture would be firmer? So after I was done with the decoration, I had to wrap the sides of the finished cake with a plastic strip (cut out from a cookie bag) in order to hold the mousse layer together. I left it to chill in the fridge again hoping it would firm up.

Despite the flaws and a rather odd combination of flavours (oreo with fruits?!), the cake tasted very refreshing, full of fruity flavours...sweet, juicy, and a slight tang from the passion fruit. The filling tasted just like pudding. With everyone asking for second helpings, our family of four wolfed down the entire cake in one setting. It was the first time we didn't have to have leftover birthday cakes for breakfast the next day ;)

Note*: I have posted the recipe here for my own reference. In case you are interested to try this, do note that the ingredient amount for the filling needs further fine-tuning, unless you don't mind a short cake.

(# I would use 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons of gelatin, and 60ml water the next time I were to make this again.)

Method:

to make the biscuit base:

Place oreo crumbs and melted butter in a bowl. Mix thoroughly with a spoon until the crumbs are moistened. Press the crumbs evenly into the base of a 7" round pan (with removable base). Use the back of the spoon, smooth out the crumbs and press firmly. You can also use a glass (with a flat base) to press down firmly. Freeze the base for at least 1 hour.

to make the filling:

Measure water into a bowl and sprinkle in the gelatin (without stirring). Set aside to allow the gelatin grains to swell (10 mins) before setting the bowl over a pot of simmering hot water. Stir with a spoon and once the gelatin melts, remove the bowl from the pot and set aside to cool to room temperature.

Blend mangoes, passion fruit juice, sugar, yogurt until the mixture becomes smooth. Add in the gelatin solution to the mixture, mix well. Pour mixture onto the biscuit base. Cover with cling wrap and leave to chill in the fridge over night or for at least 4-6 hours. Remove cake from fridge, unmold and decorate with fruits as desired. Keep the cake in the fridge before serving.

56 comments:

hi!! this cake looks so pretty especially with all the fruits. i had some experience too with oreos when i was little. i would lick off the cream and stick the cookies back in the bag and it would give my sister a surprise when she opened up the package. haha..disgusting i know:P

I don't mind a short cake but I'm a cream freak. I used to hate cream because those they used to cover cakes in bakery suck. Ever since I whipped my own cream with vanilla and sugar, I've come to known of Chantilly Cream. Now, I could even eat it just by itself. I might wanna try this and add cream and see what happens. I think raspberry puree would give it a nice shade of pink with cream added. Thanks! Plus, I don't think oreo with fruits is weird, I like it!

Ooo..I like your cake! The colours and the fresh fruits already made my saliva dripping..;p I'm trying to bake cakes for my family for all occasions but still have a lot to learn though. Thanks for sharing your wonderful recipe..:)

Quinn, the dairy cream we have over here (ie, those easily available at local supermarts) doesn't taste that fantastic, I find them too creamy and heavy to use for desserts. I would try to get one pack of those from Japan, I think it should taste lighter, but I have to find time to go to the Japanese supermarket :(

Sweeter side of life: do adjust the ingredients amount accordingly, and I hope yours will turn up flawless :D

ReeseKitchen, I am sure you have no problem making a birthday cake for your family :)

Clare: I am the greedy sort who likes to have a tall cake...the taller the better!

I'm impressed that you can create your own recipe! I'd prefer a more healthy cake without cream but I still prefer to go through the safer route by following recipes. ;) The cake looks so good, no wonder there's none left for the next day. :)

This is the easiest cake I have ever made. I follow your suggestion and the cake set beautifully, going to bring it to a MD celebration tomorrow for the taste test. Definitely going to make more of this again. Thanks for the wonderful post and really professional looking photos.

After reading yr blog. Oh My! How can someone out there have similar traits like me. I'm also a home maker with two kids. Love to bake, starts from scratch. Did not believe in attending class to bake well. Tools used are very down to earth RM80 hand mixer with simple oven. You are lucky to have bread machine. Mine is manual.

Me too, love to bake own cake for birthday, parties especially little ones. But very terrible decorating skills. But family says it taste so much better than the shops.

Hope to share some simple recipes on birthday cakes decoration. Should I buy a bread machine? How useful is it? What is the best brand?Will try ur recipes real soon.Jen with 2 beautiful kidsKuala Lumpur

Hi Jen, thanks for visiting :)I used to have a bread machine, but it broke down, so I am back to manual. I got it from carrefour, it was a cheap house brand which I got it for under S$70 three years ago. I used it only for kneading, as I prefer to shape the buns and bake them with my oven.

I have tried the the above recipe. My cake turned soggy and doesn't firm up. How come? Is it that the gelatin was not enuf to hold the cake? MusT poured the gelatin (after 10mins swell)onto a pot of simmering hot water and let it cool down before mixing to the mixture? Need urgent help as i have to back the cake inside the freezer.

Hi, I think you may have mis-read the instructions? To prepare the gelatin solution, you need to first place the gelatin in the required amount of water (use 60ml water for 1 tbs + 2 tsp gelatin powder), let it swell for 10mins. Then, set the bowl (containing the gelatin powder and water), OVER a pot of simmering hot water, ie like a double boil. The pot should be placed over your stove (turn to medium to low heat) to let the water inside the pot to simmer gently...this is to allow the gelatin to dissolve completely. Once dissolved, remove the bowl from the pot and leave it to cool before adding to the mixture. Did you do it this way? If yes, maybe you should let your cake set further in the fridge, the best is to let it set over night. Hope this helps.

hi hhb.the 1st time i followed ur receipe using yogurt..its abit too soft,like pudding!!so i am thinking to use whip cream this time round,so if i put whip cream i can omit the yogurt?sorry to ask so much..really thanks!

what is the purpose of the passion fruit juice? Can i substitute with juice from 2 small limes? If i use a 6 inch pan (to make cake taller), do u think i need to change any parts of your recipe? thks alot, HHB.Your blog is really awesome n i hv recommend it to many friends, even strangers i met while buying stuff from PH :)))May

Hi May, I used passion fruit juice just for flavour, you can replace it with other fruit juices, but I won't suggest lime as it may be a little too sour? You can use a 6" pan, but do remember to increase the amount of gelatin powder in order to get a firmer cake. Thanks for recommending my blog to your friends and even strangers :):)

i'm considering to make a cake for my husband's bday with 1 of ur 3 recipes: this one, tiramisu charlotte cake & Strawberry Jellyhearts Cheesecake. All of them look great, thank you so much for sharing the recipes.

With this cake, i just wonder if i use gelatine leaf instead of powder, what would the amount be?

I've tried ur recipe n everyone loved it!! Only problem is the fruits start to fall everywhere and it turned out pretty messy when I cut the cake. Do u have any recommendation on how to hold the fruits together? Like a jelly glaze or something? Do u have a recipe of that which i can follow? Thanks!!

Yeah now that I have gave it a try, I think it works differently, though research on some websites said gelatin can be substituted with agar-agar by equal amount. My "cake" ended up collapsing in the end (still semi-liquid form after 7+ hours chilling), but it was great fun trying out the recipe. Was making it for Mother's Day by the way. Thanks a lot :DYing

Hi Xinyi, you can use ready made passionfruit juice...but the amount used is not much. You may want to skip it. Dont think it is necessary to reduce the sugar...As this is really experimental, I can't guarantee a 100% success rate. If you are not a seasoned home baker, you may want to look for other recipes in order to avoid any unsatisfactory results ^_^"